Improvement in machine-knitted stocking



@uiten taten gsttwt @High AUGUSTUS C. CAREY, 0F MALDEN, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR T() HIM SELF AND HUGH K. MOORE, 0F SAME PLACE.

Letters Pat/mt No. 67,264, dated July 30, 1867.

IMPROVEMENT IN MACHINE-KNITTBD STOCKING.

TO ALL WHOM 'I'I MAY CONCERN:

Be it known that I, AUGUSTUS C. CAREY, of Malden, in the county of Middlesex, and State of'Massaehusetts, have invented certain new and useful improvomentsin Machine-Made Knitted Stockings, and that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, and of the differ-ence between my invention and what has heretofore been known or practised.

Letters Patent ofthe United States were granted to me on the 24th ofiApril, 1866, for an improvement in machine-made knitted stockings, whichwere a good andmcrchantable stocking, but not so perfect inform, nor so readily knit as the stocking of my present invention. I propose in the knitting of my present f orm and style of stocking to use a machine with two rows ol' needles anda jacquard pattern to each row, but gain several important advantages in my newmode of knitting over that oi' my former invention or patent, as follows: first, a more perfect, smooth, and close heel; second, a much larger heel without danger of breaking the instep; third, a better-shaped-hecl, and its relation to the toe more like that of a hand-knitstoeking; and, fourth, the knitting can be donc faster, and hence cheaper. In my patent as above referred to theheel of the stocking was knit in part upon -each of the tworows of needles, first forward and back upon a part of one row of needles, then forward and backupon a part of the opposite row, and so on, increasing the number of needles each time across, until the heel was as large as required.

In my present plan of knitting a stocking by machinery, I knit the toc and foot portion, beginningat the centre ofv the row of. needles, and not at one side thereof, as in the former patent, but the whole heel is knit upon one row ofineedles only, viz, by first throwing forward one, two, or more needles in the centre of one of the rows of needles, and each time across throwing forward one or more additional needles, `(occasionally knitting all around on both rows,) until all the needles (if all should be required) of one row are at work. Then I decrease the number thrown forward one, two, or more needles at each revolution, until it has got hack to the number of needles with which thc heel was commenced. Thus I knit in one side a diamond-shaped piece or a gore, which makes a kind of bag for the heel, which is more roomy and better shaped. 'lhe advantages of this plan of knitting the heel on one of the rows of needles of a two-rowed knitting machine, instead of knitting it upona part of thetwo rows, I have stated above as four in number, one of which consists in knitting a smoother and tighter heel, and which I accomplish as follows: Suppose that, in commencing the knitting of the heel, I have thrown forward ive needles; then the sixth needle on the side of the row that takes the yarn rst (Whichever side that may be) is thrown only half way forward to the knitting-line, and catches'and holds the yarn, but it does not knit. The next time across, six, seven, or more needles are thrown forward, and the needle next to those thus thrown forward is thrown forward only half way,and catches and holds the thread, but does not knit, and so on, the needle next to the series that is knitting only going forward far enough to catch and hold the thread, but not to knit. By this means I entirely avoid making holes in the heels, as was the case in my former mode of knitting. When I speakV of throwing forward the needles,`&c., I of course refer to needles thrown forward mechanically, and directed by a jacquard pattern working in connection with them.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim as a new article of manufacture, is-

A machine-made knitted stocking, the toe of which is commenced in the centre of the two rows of straight needles, and the heel of which is knit upon one of the two straight rows of needles of the machine, whilst the other portions are the product of both rows, by which means I produce a heel closely knit, without holes or openings, and of better shape and form than heretofore knit by machinery, and bearing a greater similarity,

with regard to the toe portion, to hand-knit stockings, substantially as herein described.

A. C. CAREY. Witnesses A. B. SroUGnrox, H. K. Moons. 

